A holidaymaker says she was forced by Ryanair to pay more than £200 for a
"piece of paper" after she arrived at an airport without printing her
boarding passes in advance.

Suzy McLeod's complaint about "unfair" charges appears to have touched a raw nerve with frustrated fellow customers of the no-frills airline, after it was backed by more than 350,000 people on Facebook.

Passengers using the carrier are expected to check in on the internet and print their boarding card before travel.

If they fail to do so they will be charged a £60-per-person boarding card reissue fee if flying from the UK - or €60 if departing from the continent or Ireland.

Ms McLeod, from Newbury, Berkshire, complained that on August 15 she was charged €300 (£236) to print out five boarding passes on a flight home from Spain.

A day later she wrote on a Facebook page devoted to Ryanair: “When flying from Alicante to Bristol yesterday, I had previously checked in on-line but because I hadn't printed out the Boarding Passes, Ryanair charged me €60 per person!!!

“Meaning I had to pay €300 for them to print out a piece of paper! Please ‘like’ if you think that's unfair.”

By Tuesday, just five days after the post, it had been "liked" by more than 358,000 people, while more than 18,000 users had commented on it.

Many of the remarks backed Ms McLeod, describing the charges as “outrageous” and “ridiculous”, and some describing their own negative experiences of the airline.

However others pointed out that the carrier made clear in booking emails that boarding passes had to be printed out.

One wrote: “Annoying? Too right it is. Expensive? Outrageously so. But did they warn you beforehand? Yes. Answer? Either read the small print and comply with the conditions, or stop flying budget airlines.”

Mrs McLeod, a housewife, said: “We could have gone first class BA for cheaper.”

She said the flights had been advertised at £166 per person but once priority seat allocation, baggage fees and the boarding passes had been paid for, the family had forked out £1,650.

Mrs McLeod, 35, travelled to Spain with her parents, who are in their 60s, together with son Harrison, ten, and daughter Mary, three, and were joined half-way through the break by her husband Mark, 43, an IT consultant.

But the five members of the initial group were not able to print out their return boarding passes in time to have them before they left Britain.

Mrs McLeod said: “We went on holiday for 15 days and so I couldn't print the return boarding passes because you can only do that two weeks before the flight.

“I had the passes on my phone as pdf documents and thought this would be sufficient. What was originally meant to be a cheap holiday ended up costing a lot.

"We had to scrap every penny we had in cash on us to pay it. It was stressful and unnecessary.

“I don't think we'll use them again. We wouldn't even consider them.”

Mrs McLeod added that she was amazed with the response she has had on her Facebook post.

She said: "It's been absolutely crazy. What it has shown me is that there are a huge amount of people who have had bad experiences with Ryanair. I didn't expect so many people to react to it. It must have struck a cord with some people.”

Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said: "As is clearly outlined in the terms and conditions for every Ryanair passenger, Mrs McLeod agreed at the time of booking that she and her fellow passengers would check-in online and print their boarding cards before arriving at their departure airport, and she also accepted and agreed that if she failed to do so then she would pay our boarding card re-issue penalty of £60 per passenger."

Ryanair’s boarding card reissue rose from £40 to £60 in December. Other charges include a £6 per person per flight “admin fee” and a £6 “web check-in fee”.

It also recently introduced an “EU261 levy” to offset the cost of paying compensation for flight delays and cancellations, and since January it has also charged an “ETS levy” to cover the cost of the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme, under which airlines are fined for exceeding carbon emissions limits.

Ryanair passengers wishing to check in a single bag, meanwhile, are charged between £15 and £40 per person per flight, depending on the time of year, their destination, and the weight of their luggage. Carriage of sports or musical equipment costs £50.

British travellers have to pay more because the airline charges continental or Irish customers the same figure but in euros.

The policy was adopted when sterling was close to parity with the single currency but the recent rise in the value of the pound against the euro means Britons are now paying 25% more than those travelling from other countries.